When Chafee was a Republican Senator, he was ranked as the No. 1 RINO by Human Events.  Chafee lost his reelection bid in 2006 to Sheldon Whitehouse.

In 2010, Chafee ran for Governor and eked out a win in a three way race beating the Republican candidate 36.1% to 33.6%, with the Democrat who famously told Obama to shove his endorsement of Chafee, coming in at 23%.

Since winning, Chafee has governed as expected, out liberaling Democrats on issues like illegal immigration, where he has sought to turn Rhode Island into a sanctuary state.

Now Chafee is on board as a national co-Chair of the Obama campaign.  So Chafee has moved from RINO to IINO, Independent In Name Only:

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has named 35 national co-chairs, including Governor Chafee and actress Eva Longoria.

It was in declining the offer of a largely ceremonial chairmanship of President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign that then-Senator Chafee, a Republican-turned-Independent, gave his first clue of what was to become a long path out of the Republican Party.

Atop the Rhode Island State House dome stands a statue of the Independent Man.

Under the dome sits the Independent In Name Only Man.

Yet the threats facing Israel now are so great that AIPAC, the group which advocates for strong support of Israel, is seeing increased representation by Reform groups at its annual meeting, and many Reform Jews are rejecting the “blame Israel” crowd, as reported in this column by Rabbi David Kaufmann in The Times of Israel:

The Israel advocacy sky isn’t falling. In the Reform movement, support for Israel is increasing both qualitatively and quantitatively. There is both more advocacy going on and better advocacy going on. Concern and advocacy for Israel have ballooned.

Why is this all of this happening? I will give you seven reasons among many.

First, there is a realization among many of us that the peace process, as it was up until 2007 when Hamas took over Gaza, is no longer likely to achieve peace anytime soon. Some have responded to that fact by seeking American pressure on Israel in a vain attempt to bring the Palestinian side to the table. Others of us, on the other hand, reject that idea and believe that  the absence of progress toward peace is not primarily, if at all, the fault of Israel….

Second, we acknowledge the growing threat of Iran and its nuclear program. This is an existential threat and at least some of us feel a need to speak out about combating it.

Third, many of us have become tired of the criticism heaped upon Israel and attempts to delegitimize it. We have become tired of a narrative that basically says that Israel’s attempts to defend itself are wrong because the other side is weaker and has a right to murder Jews around the world because Israel will not give in to their demands, even risking the existence of the Jewish state in the process. Wrong.

Read the rest for the other reasons.

Paul’s media staff put together some of the most vicious and effective ads, but always against the rising not-Romney.

So, this is the question being asked in many places including by Chuck Todd:

And also by Mark Levin:

Perhaps there is no promise, it’s just power politics. Paul wants to be the not-Romney, or at least keep the others down so that he can be the kingmaker whose delegates push Romney over the top.

Paul doesn’t need promises now. He’ll do his bargaining when he is at maximum power, which will be in a couple of months.

From reader Eric:

Thought you might really enjoy this, Professor…

Seen on the streets of Chicago. I think I may have an answer as to why so many lefties are angry. Perhaps they attribute parking tickets to the 1%’s secret influence upon Chicago Democrats who are compelled to issue them in order to pay for the uber-wealthy’s cocktail parties and wienie roasts.

Of course, as good little progressives, they refuse to pay these fines. Truly, they’re every bit as dense as we all know them to be.

Metaphor Alert:

This is your health care on Obamacare

• Supreme Court ready to throw out affirmative action?  NY Times is worried, and at least one conservative thinks it’s lining up as a distinct possibility.
• Prop. 8 backers seek 9th Circuit en banc hearing, don’t go straight to Supremes.
• Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, is upset that the media has unleashed the hounds.  Oh, sorry, wrong link, here.
• Chris Christie’s not presidential campaign ad.
• Allen West knows they are watching, and he don’t care.  (h/t Rusty)
• Cat fight!
• NY Times writer who is upset with ESPN Jeremy Lin headline referred to Midwesterners as having Low Sloping Foreheads.  (video)
• Headline of the Day:  “Gay activists continue to boycott only state in Middle East that doesn’t execute them.”
• James Taranto says you can’t make this stuff up.  AP FACT CHECK says, we just did:

GINGRICH: “Having become deeply involved in GM’s operation, the federal government has a vested interest in the company’s success. So what is stopping it from requiring all Americans — under threat of penalty — to buy a GM car?” — In his book “A Nation Like No Other,” published last summer.

THE FACTS: This is called Newt being Newt.

Newt being Newt is a fact check?  How about every time Obama talks about creating or saving millions of jobs, how the economy is coming back, how Republicans want to do away with Social Security and Medicare, how the rich don’t pay their fair share, how “some say” there is no role for government … How about when Obama and his administration pull stuff out of thin air,  AP FACT CHECK says:

“This is called Obama being Obama”?

• Update: From the archives, Obama Channels Seinfeld.

They built up reasonable solid conservative Rick from the Northern Virginia suburbs when it was necessary to stop Newt, but now that he’s a threat to Mitt, he’s Ricky Bobby from Deer Hunter, PA.

The Drudge headline today, linking to this:

All those nice “right” things (masterfully cataloged by this commenter at Hot Air), now they’re like nails on a chalkboard:

In short, Santorum on social issues is not a conservative but a reactionary, seeking to obliterate the national consensus on a range of issues beyond gay marriage and abortion.

Monica Lewinsky has attempted to keep a low-profile after her role in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment scandal made her name the butt of many late-night jokes. But she’s likely to become a topic of discussion again when PBS airs its much anticipated two-part, four-hour documentary on the former president, titled “Clinton.”

The documentary, which premieres on PBS as part of its “American Experience” series on Monday, will shed new light on Clinton’s Oval Office affair with his 23-year-old intern through interviews with some of Clinton’s closest advisors, some of whom are speaking publicly about the affair for the first time.

Among the former White House staffers appearing on camera are Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Clinton’s former reelection campaign manager, Dick Morris.

Watch Clinton and Lying: the Lewinsky Scandal on PBS. See more from American Experience.

From Heritage Foundation via CharlieSykes:

Disingenuous Tweet of the Day:

The tweet links to an article titled Birth control as election issue? Why?

The issue of birth control has suddenly become an obsession of the 2012 presidential campaign. To many observers, it seems that the clock has indeed been turned back.

Birth control is not an obsession of the presidential campaign.  As Ed Morrissey explains, it is an obession of the mainstream media, which took an issue of religious freedom and tried to turn it into a supposed threat by Republicans to ban contraception.

It started in earnest with the George Stephanopolous grilling of Mitt Romney on the subject at the New Hampshire debate in early January, trying to get Romney to say states have the right to ban contraception.  Even as to Rick Santorum, the issue was simply a hypothetical states’ power issue, not a public policy argument that states should ban contraception.

Since then, WaPo has run dozens of articles focusing on the contraception issue, and both its left (Greg Sargent) and (allegedly) right (Jennifer Rubin) bloggers along withWaPo columists, have brought up the issue almost daily.

The mainstream media, with WaPo in the lead, created a phony controversy regarding birth control, and now is shocked, just shocked that it has become an election issue.

Don’t think for a second that in this election cycle anything has changed.

From the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and anti-Israeli forces in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, to the unrelenting Iranian arming of Hamas and Hezbollah, to the near isolation of Israel at the U.N. (where the U.S. barely could bring itself to veto an anti-Israeli resolution), to undermining Israel’s position on borders, Israel has not been as isolated and threatened in at least a generation.

In response, Obama’s campaign has released a web video (forwarded to me by a reader who saw someone link to it on Facebook) featuring Israeli leaders saying nice things about Obama.

How convenient. Israeli leaders, of course, are very hesitant to say anything negative for fear of being accused of interfering in American politics.

And whenever an Israeli leader’s criticism of Obama is used by supporters of Israel, there are howls of how un-American it is to take sides against “my President,” and claims of being Israel-Firsters and pledging allegiance to Israel.

Here’s the web ad:

Here’s a news clip they left out:

Here’s a more accurate assessment:

Update:  Thanks to a reader who forwards this link to a post by Joel Pollak pointing out that the video uses old footage (such as Obama’s trip to Israel before he was President — he hasn’t visited Israel since the election) as well as unrelated footage which misleadingly makes it sound as if they seek the reelection of Obama.

Spotted in a car rear window in Ithaca not far from my house:

• This apology.  When do I get mine?
• And the award for the Most Underrated Blog Post of 2012 goes to …. (oh, how he must suffer for his art).
• TaxProf has tax charts showing charitable giving of various candidates.
• Television makes strange bedfellows.  Chris Matthews defends Pat Buchanan.
• In response to my post All your children are belong to us, readers sent me these two links:  Norwegian authorities list Bhattacharyas’ shortcomings and How America made its children crazy.
• Another right wing fanatic blames the Hollywood Jews.
• Global warming good for NY farmers.
• Which of the 57 states is Road Island?
• We are in the worst of hands, we need to be in the best of hands:

It is with tremendous sadness and sorrow that the family announces the recent passing of Gina Cobb. She departed very peacefully to her heavenly home on December 30, 2011. Gina will be greatly missed by all her family and friends.

I visited Gina’s blog over the years, but with the rush of the past few weeks had not been back there until recently when I saw the announcement.  I have reached out to her family for more details, and will update this post if I hear back.

Gina’s Obituary indicated the following:

Regina Liudzius Cobb passed away peacefully on December 30, 2011 at Providence Little Company of Mary Hospital in San Pedro following a massive stroke. The unexpected and tragic loss has been devastating to her family and friends. Gina is survived by her husband and two beloved children. She is also survived by her mother, father, sister, two brothers, in-laws, a niece and four nephews. Gina grew up in Glendale, California and graduated from Glendale High. In 1981, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from UCLA. She subsequently received her post-graduate degree from UCLA School of Law…. Gina was a member of Christ Lutheran Church, where she regularly delivered children’s messages during Sunday services, and taught Sunday school in the summer. She also served on the Christ Lutheran school board. Gina will be greatly missed. She has touched many lives with her kindness, compassion, and relentless drive for excellence

Gina described herself in her blog bio as follows:

Gina Cobb is an American lawyer, a writer, and a mother who values liberty, common sense, decency, and kindness. Shockingly, these simple and obvious values are not universally shared and are constantly under attack from one source or another.

Gina’s last post in early December was Your Vanishing Freedom.  How fitting for our times.

Gina will be missed.

Update:  Remember, because of the implicit marginal rate, people in this category face huge financial disincentives to earning more money.

A vulnerable area, as in Putting things off to the last minute is the chink in Pat’s armor and is bound to get her in trouble one day . This term relies on chink in the sense of “a crack or gap,” a meaning dating from about 1400 and used figuratively since the mid-1600s.

The term “chink in the armor” is used frequently in sports analogies, as this 2005-2010 Google search indicates.

“Chink” standing alone also is a slang pejorative for someone of Chinese or more generally of Asian descent.

In discussing Jeremy Lin’s playing vulnerabilities, an on-air ESPN announcer used the phrase “chink in armor” and it was repeated in an ESPN web headline early the next morning.

The announcer has been suspended and the headline writer fired because the idiom was deemed offensive:

The ESPN editor fired Sunday for using “chink in the armor” in a headline about Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin said the racial slur never crossed his mind – and he was devastated when he realized his mistake.

“This had nothing to do with me being cute or punny,” Anthony Federico told the Daily News….

Battling to contain a furor, the sports network fired Federico and suspended anchor Max Bretos for 30 days because it turned out he had used the same expression on the air last week. ESPN offered profuse mea culpas and promised to be “better in the future.”

Federico, 28, said he understands why he was axed. “ESPN did what they had to do,” he said.

He said he has used the phrase “at least 100 times” in headlines over the years and thought nothing of it when he slapped it on the Lin story….

Bretos, too, said he didn’t think of the slur Wednesday when he asked Knicks legend Walt (Clyde) Frazier about Lin on the air.

“If there is a chink in the armor, where can he improve his game?” Bretos asked….

“My wife is Asian, would never intentionally say anything to disrespect her and that community,” Bretos wrote. “Despite intention, phrase was inappropriate in this context.”

If there were some evidence of a deliberate attempt to use a slur, that would be one thing, but there is none here from what has been revealed.

Add it to the list:  Black Friday, Black Hole, Providence Plantations, Rejigger, and Gobbledygook.